Creative Diagnostics is a leading manufacturer and supplier of antibodies, viral antigens,
innovative diagnostic components and critical assay reagents. We provide contract
biologic R&D and manufacturing services to the diagnostic manufacturers along with GMP biologics manufacturing for the biopharmaceutical market. Our goal is ... More >

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HPV L1 Antibodies for Neutralization and Vaccine Development

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a virus from the papillomavirus family that is capable of infecting humans. Like all papillomaviruses, HPVs establish productive infections only in keratinocytes of the skin or mucous membranes. There are nearly 200 different strains of HPV, most of which are harmless and not cancer causing. Out of all these 14 high-risk HPV types (HPV 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 66, and 68) are known to lead to cancers of the cervix, vulva, vagina, penis, oropharynx and anus, and another 6 are suspected of causing cancer. In addition, HPV has been linked with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

Papillomaviruses are non-enveloped, meaning that the outer shell or capsid of the virus is not covered by a lipid membrane. HPV infections are largely shielded from the host immune response because they are nonlytic and restricted to the epithelium. Serum antibodies against many different viral products have been demonstrated. The best characterized antibodies are those directed against conformational epitopes of the L1 capsid protein assembled as VLPs. Like most non-enveloped viruses, the capsid is geometrically regular and presents icosahedral. Self-assembled virus-like particles composed of L1 are the basis of a successful group of prophylactic HPV vaccines designed to elicit virus-neutralizing antibodies that protect against initial HPV infection. Compared to other papillomavirus genes, the amino acid sequences of most portions of L1 are well-conserved between types. However, the surface loops of L1 can differ substantially, even for different members of a particular papillomavirus species. This probably reflects a mechanism for evasion of neutralizing antibody responses elicited by previous papillomavirus infections.